Former Limuru MP Kuria Kanyingi dies in India

The man who was part of the famous duo that triggered events that would lead to the resignation of Kenya's fifth vice president in 1989 breathed his last in an Indian hospital yesterday.

A sombre mood has engulfed the home of former Limuru MP Kuria Kanyingi after news spread he had died of colon cancer while receiving medical treatment.

Family member Milton Njoroge told The Standard Mr Kanyingi died shortly after 1am yesterday after a long battle with the disease.

"The only information we have now is that mzee passed on in India where he was receiving treatment. Any other information shall be disclosed as we receive it," said Mr Njoroge, a former Kiambu Kanu official.

His family was yesterday making arrangements to bring the body home for burial.

Born in 1945, Kanyingi will be remembered as the man who was fished from the Motor Vehicle Inspection Unit to engineer a smear and ouster campaign against former Vice President Josephat Karanja.

This was a year after Mr Karanja had been appointed in 1988 to replace Mwai Kibaki, who had been demoted.

Equally diminutive, Kanyingi and Embakasi MP David Mwenje harassed Dr Karanja in and outside Parliament, leading to an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the House in which the Vice President found himself without a single defender.

Karanja was ignominiously accused of undermining his boss, ordering politicians to kneel before him, and public displays of love for his wife, among other ills, by MPs only too eager to cast the first stone.

Days later, Karanja threw in the towel while praising his boss for giving him the opportunity to serve Kenya.

GAINED NOTORIETY

Kanyingi, who was then just a director at the inspectorate then housed in the Transport ministry, had caught the eyes of the powers of the day.

Over the next few years, he would gain notoriety as a politician who would bring a lot of money to fundraising events while singing the praises of President Daniel Moi.

At the height of this bounty, Kanyingi was also known to sing such praises for Kanu, the ruling party at the time. Indeed, he was quoted saying, "Hata ukinikata, damu yangu ni Kanu!" (If you cut me, you will see my blood is Kanu).

Even before his harambee prowess gained full steam, he devised a novel strategy to 'assist' the Lari Women Group 'purchase' passenger service vehicles in an income-generating scheme.

While he would be seen in the media regularly launching the buses, the truth, according to a former close aide, was that very few buses, if any, were ever bought.

"A scheme was hatched involving workers at a bus body building workshop who would paint the words 'Lari Women Group' on the buses that would then be 'launched' for reporters and cameras, then painted plain again," said the aide.

Kanyingi vied for the Limuru parliamentary seat on a Kanu ticket in 1992 but floundered badly and lost to George Nyanja of Ford-Asili. He lost again in 1997 to the same man, this time on a National Development Party ticket.

But in 2002, he was among MPs who made it on a Kanu ticket alongside presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta. In 2007, he lost to debutant Peter Mwathi.

The son of a peasant farmer carried his reputation as a 'Mr Moneybags' to Parliament.

In the carefree 1980s, it is little wonder the witty diminutive man was able to feather his nest so elaborately that it remained warm even as he breathed his last yesterday.